Instagram is testing a new feature that will notify users of potential app crashes. For now, it will be tested in the US for several months. Instagram will then decide whether to expand the feature in other countries, the official blog post states.
With the new feature, Instagram users will receive notifications right in their Activity Feed if the service experiences network outages or technical problems. They will also be notified once the issue is resolved.
Bradley Rhodes
However, not all users will receive such alerts in case of outages every time. Instagram says it will notify people that are “confused and looking for answers.
Instagram users will also get an opportunity to check their account status in a new dedicated “Account Status” tab to determine whether any of the content they post violates Instagram’s guidelines and whether their account is at risk of being disabled.
If users believe Instagram made a mistake when removing their post or disabling their account, they can send an appeal right from the Account Status.
Bradley Rhodes
Instagram introduced new features following a global outage that affected Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp (all owned by Facebook). The services were unavailable to more than 10.5 million users worldwide for approximately 6 hours, making it the largest outage in the company’s history.
Facebook subsequently reported that a misconfiguration of the backbone routers caused the failure of its services. User data is said to have been intact.